This will be a buy 2 play moddable sandbox MMO based in part on Ultima Online (the late 90’s MMORPG which is still in operation today). Citadel Studios was founded by UO veterans like Derek Brinkmann and Tim Cotten with the aim of creating an UO and Neverwinter Nights style MMO. The game was previously known as Shards Online during its Kickstarter campaign where it raised around $105,000. Because I am not a fan of Kickstarter campaigns for funding game development, I remained only a curious onlooker.
The name was changed to Legends of Aria before the start of its paid alpha since the scope of the game had changed from the initial Kickstarter (the scope expanded with the 64 player limit removed, larger maps, expanded character based skills, and persistent emergent gameplay where player actions drive the game world).
I haven’t blogged about this title before since it was in alpha throughout the 2nd half of 2017. It then went into closed beta at the end of January where the NDA was lifted. This closed beta will be coming to an end on February 11th and the servers will be moved back to experimental status on the 12th where the NDA will go into effect once again. So like most early access, alpha test, (and in this case, initial closed beta) I prefer not to provide any in-depth thoughts.
I’m also sort of ambivalent when it comes to the nostalgia factor. Sometimes it can be a good thing but other times, you eventually realize that you can’t really go back in time to recreate everything that you loved in the original. In other cases, the franchise ends up being “ruined” when none of the original principals are there to provide at least some continuity as to what were important facets of the original design (thus being able to learn from previous mistakes that were experienced first hand, and addressing them from that perspective).
Like so many things in life, there is usually that central point where the pendulum isn’t at either ends of the spectrum where it’s only appealing to those mainly in that corner. When it comes to gaming though, that central point doesn’t also mean dumbing down systems to the point for the sake of appealing to as wide a demographic as possible. Some genres, that can be easily done while others, much less so. This is effectively what drove me away from Blizzard Entertainment’s recent titles (specifically Diablo III and StarCraft II; though the latter for different reasons) where I was once one of those guaranteed purchasers, to someone that now has to be convinced of becoming a customer again.
And this wasn’t only me; I was basically the last hold out from my group to do that. Again, the bulk of this blog details the specifics as to why I moved away from what was once two beloved franchises (though the focus is primarily on my issues with D3). Not even the notion that Diablo IV (or whatever it will be called) is enough to get me to consider purchasing and playing another Blizzard created title at this point.
I will say that the moddable aspect of Legends of Aria (where players can specify game play parameters from a simple web interface to run their own community server) is what piqued my interest. But I am not going to sit here and kid myself that there is also some nostalgia involved since the Ultima franchise is what many of us played during the 90’s.
